Founder & CEO, Sherpaa

Wisconsin health care consumers can now price-shop. Gov. Jim Doyle signed the Health Care Transparency Bill Tuesday at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa requiring health care providers to disclose the cost of the most common procedures they perform. It will help consumers get price estimates prior to a procedure, help make apples-to-apples comparisons on prices and help determine out-of-pocket costs prior to services occurring. “Nowhere else are people asked to buy a product before they know what the price is,” Doyle said in a statement. “This bill is a practical step forward that will help people better understand what their health care costs are before making important health care decisions.” Nancy Wenzel, chief executive officer of the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans, said the legislation parallels the efforts of many health plans in the state to empower consumer decision making. “With health care services taking more money out of consumers’ pockets, health plans gave their insured members another tool for managing their health care budgets,” Wenzel said. “As access to health care cost information increases, we expect consumer demand for the information will grow.”